


Short Tale

by gremlin4



Series: Welcome To The Slightly Annoyed Family [13]
Category: Dir en grey, Jrock, the GazettE
Genre: Established Relationship, Explicit Language, Fluff, Humor, Kyo is an idiot, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 08:46:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19971265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gremlin4/pseuds/gremlin4
Summary: It was a rare and peaceful day today for Ruki. For one, Ruki didn’t have any pressing matters to attend to. No work, no recording, no interviews... Nothing, but a good book to read and maybe some time spent with his fiancé.Except Kyo's a little shit.





	Short Tale

**Author's Note:**

> The italicized parts are excerpts from Edgar Allen Poe's short-story 'The Tell-Tale Heart', which I do not own except for an old beat up copy of the book. And there'll be another chapter of This Is Where It Starts coming soon, I just wanted to finish up some other interludes I have floating around. Hope you guys enjoy!

It was a rare and peaceful day for Ruki. For one, Ruki didn’t have any pressing matters to attend to. Something he hadn’t done in what felt like years, but also because he was at peace with his day off. Normally he’d be cleaning the house in boredom or re-working a song just to fill his day with something productive since being lazy just didn’t sit well with him. Of course he’d gotten much better at being a couch potato since meeting Kyo, but even in those times he felt the need to work in the back of his mind. Today, however, Ruki was determined to focus his efforts on anything but work.

Starting with the pile of books he had accumulated over the last few months – possibly years. Now that they were becoming more and more popular overseas especially in Europe and America, Ruki had been working more on his English, both conversation-wise and his reading. Already there have been rumors of western countries making suggests of them attending music festivals or tours; a proud moment for the band and Ruki wanted to be at least passable with the English language to make it easier on them. He’d heard a number of horror stories from Kyo and other musicians who’ve gone overseas that their streets and signs could be quite confusing. Plus, Ruki wanted to be able to do interviews and fan meetings without the need of a translator with them all the time.

The first step in helping him to achieve his goal – aside from his speech classes – was to expose himself to as much English as possible; meaning a lot of their music, movies, and of course, their books. It was easy enough to get a hold of American music and films, but reading was proving to be Ruki’s downfall. For one, Ruki did not enjoy reading textbook like works that his language coach tried to push off on him and so he’d let that part of his studying go by the wayside. At least until Kyo’s sister gifted him a set of Edgar Allen Poe’s bestselling novels and short stories. Now that was something Ruki could easily devour in a few hours time, once he got free time, and what better time than during his hard earned three day weekend?

Well… Maybe he could spend a little of that time with Kyo, considering Kyo had negotiated with Kaoru and Takumi both for the corresponding time off. But that didn’t mean he had to spend all of it with Kyo.

Currently Kyo was taking a shower. Or… Getting ready to take a shower at least. Ruki hadn’t really been paying attention when Kyo had made the announcement, mostly because Ruki wasn’t in the mood for sex that Kyo was obviously trying to goad him into. That and Ruki had dinner currently baking in the oven and a stew simmering away on the stovetop. It would be some time before he needed to check on it and even longer before it was done, hence him pulling out a book to read, but Kyo took that as a sign that Ruki had time to fool around.

Yeah… Maybe if he wanted to burn the whole house down. Not.

So Ruki had shoved him away with a few soft swats before curling up on the couch with another book from his new set. It had been going well; Ruki had gotten through two short stories and was on the third when an odd sound drew him away. Placing the simple plastic dog motif bookmark he was using, Ruki sat up from his reclined position to glance around the living area. Nothing seemed out of place as far as he could tell. Both Koron and Mr. Squidge were perfectly content in their beds on the other end of the couch – obviously it couldn’t have been them – and the rest of the house seemed silent except for the sound of the shower.

Just to be safe, Ruki sat up further, leaning off the couch to peek into the kitchen – nothing – and then behind the couch and down the hallway leading to the foyer – still nothing.

Shrugging off the sound, it might have just been the stew bubbling up for all he knew, Ruki relaxed back into his pile of pillows as he resumed his place in the story.

_It is impossible to say how the idea first entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me._

A low buzzing noise started up not too far from the couch and slightly behind him. At first Ruki was content to ignore it. Sometimes houses just made weird noises; it could be anything from the A/C unit kicking on to the pipes being a little backed up from going months since someone used them properly. Or at least he hoped so. If something was going to break in the house, hopefully it would wait until Kyo was done with his shower so that he could take care of it instead. Because Ruki was certainly no handy man and if it involved dark, cramped spaces he was out. No chance in hell he was going in to investigate, much less fix something.

Only that fucking buzzing noise was really annoying. Placing his bookmark inside once more, Ruki glanced over the sides and behind the couch just to be certain it wasn’t something in the immediate area. Still nothing.

Could it simply be a fly that got it? He hoped it was. That was infinitely easier to deal with than suddenly losing power or something stupid like that. Taking a moment to strain his hearing for the running water of the shower just in case it was Kyo fucking with him – he certainly wouldn’t put it past the man to try and mess with him. Ruki breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the water running still. Without physically getting up to inspect the house, Ruki decided just to ignore the sound and continue his book.

_He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eyes! Yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture-a pale blue eye with a film over it._

Again Ruki heard the strange buzzing noise, but this time it was closer and it seemed to be moving even closer. What the hell? No. He was going to ignore it. It was just a stupid bug that had managed to find a way into the house; he was not going to run around trying to hunt down that sound. He was reading, he was going to finish this book damn it.

That was the plan until a feather soft touch brush up against the back of his neck. Instantly Ruki was upright. Hand wrapped around his neck protectively as he spun around to knock away the fly. But there was nothing there, nothing he could see at least. Jesus, he was going insane. Haunted by a phantom fly.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Ruki gave the room another once over before slowly relaxing back into the pillows. Though his paranoia was through the roof at this point, he tried to resume reading. Sadly he had lost his place after that last time, but he found it easily enough thankfully. He just need to calm down, focus, and ignore that bitch ass fly that was still buzzing around.

_Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so... by... degrees-_

He felt it over the top of his ear this time. But it’s fine. He just swatted away at the air, hoping his swing will frighten it off enough that it finally leave him and find some other target. Instead he pushed through the strange sensation and restarted the last sentence.

_...degrees-very gradually-I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever._

And the sensation was back, but it wasn’t the only thing that brushed across his neck and ear. This time there was a little more force behind the feeling which Ruki immediately recognized. And Kyo thought he was clever. With a sharp snap, Ruki closed his book and quickly brought it around with a loud whap as the book connected with Kyo’s head in a perfect hit.

"Ow! Jesus, Ruki! What the fuck was that for?!" Kyo raged as he stood up from his position leaning over the back of the couch to rub at his abused face.

"How about for being a little shit?” Ruki stated with a raised eyebrow.

"If it annoyed you so much, you should have just said so. You didn’t have to try and knocked me out.”

Rolling his eyes, Ruki stood up to go check on the food since he had been so rudely interrupted. “I smacked you with a paperback book. And it wasn’t even that hard of a hit. You’ll live.”

“But what if I have permanent brain damage because of that? I could be handicap and it’d be entirely your fault.” Kyo pouted as he followed Ruki into the kitchen. “That’s spousal abuse!”

“If you’re brain damaged now because of that you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.”

“That hurts Ruki,” Kyo pretending to cry out, throwing himself on the counter beside Ruki as the younger man continued to check on the food instead of his fiancé. “That really hurts.”

Smiling, Ruki paused in his careful stirs of the stew to lean over Kyo and brush a light kiss over his cheek. “You’ll live,” he laughed.

“You’re heartless. I could be dying right now and all you care about is soup.”

“Keep it up and Mr. Squidge is getting your portion of dinner tonight.”

That seemed to silence the older man’s whining. Though he hadn’t managed to stop the older man from continuing to be a little shit as Kyo kept attempting to steal the samples of the stew Ruki would portion out to make sure the taste and texture were okay. After the third attempt to steal his spoon, Ruki gave up and moved onto the rice cooker to finish the last touches on dinner when Ruki realized something.

Kyo was here, clothed and completely dry, no evidence of the shower he had supposedly taken or was going to but then why…

"Uh, Kyo?” Ruki asked, getting a questioning hum from Kyo was he sampled another mouthful of dinner. “Are you going to take a shower or just let the water keep running?"

"Shit!"


End file.
